Sad how naive they are. My grandfather talks about shiat like this all the time and I shoot him down time and again. He also calls KFC a "chicken restaurant." They're living in different versions of reality.

I'm legitimately curious, does something happen in the human brain around a certain age that makes old people this way? I would imagine that this woman in question had a functioning brain when she was in her 30s for instance. I doubt she would have just given thousands of dollars to a stranger when she was young. What made her unable to rationally evaluate reality now? Similarly, why is it so much harder for older people to learn new skills? I'm not even talking about people in their 70s and 80s. Even adults in their later 40s and 50s seem to lose the ability to do new things. I'm sure I'm not the first person to try to teach an older mother or father how to use a computer. And yet simple stuff like "click the mouse here" is like trying to teach rocket surgery. I'm sure that when the first TVs or some other "new when they were young" piece of tech came out, they used to be pretty good at just learning how to use it. They learned how the 8 tracks in their cars worked. Why is learning a DVD player or how to print something now impossible? Someone who knows about brain chemistry or physiology; is there a medical reason for this kind of thing?

taurusowner:I'm legitimately curious, does something happen in the human brain around a certain age that makes old people this way? I would imagine that this woman in question had a functioning brain when she was in her 30s for instance. I doubt she would have just given thousands of dollars to a stranger when she was young. What made her unable to rationally evaluate reality now? Similarly, why is it so much harder for older people to learn new skills? I'm not even talking about people in their 70s and 80s. Even adults in their later 40s and 50s seem to lose the ability to do new things. I'm sure I'm not the first person to try to teach an older mother or father how to use a computer. And yet simple stuff like "click the mouse here" is like trying to teach rocket surgery. I'm sure that when the first TVs or some other "new when they were young" piece of tech came out, they used to be pretty good at just learning how to use it. They learned how the 8 tracks in their cars worked. Why is learning a DVD player or how to print something now impossible? Someone who knows about brain chemistry or physiology; is there a medical reason for this kind of thing?

My father is mean and I can't remember ever liking him, but he did one thing I highly approve of. Many years ago, a young man went to my maternal grandmother and told her one of my sisters' was involved in some emergency. She gave him cash to take to my sister and he spent it on drugs. My father went to his domicile, kicked the door in, picked Mr.Druggie up by his throat and shook him like a rag doll. Mr. Druggie stayed the heck away from my grandmother after that.

taurusowner:I'm legitimately curious, does something happen in the human brain around a certain age that makes old people this way? I would imagine that this woman in question had a functioning brain when she was in her 30s for instance. I doubt she would have just given thousands of dollars to a stranger when she was young. What made her unable to rationally evaluate reality now? Similarly, why is it so much harder for older people to learn new skills? I'm not even talking about people in their 70s and 80s. Even adults in their later 40s and 50s seem to lose the ability to do new things. I'm sure I'm not the first person to try to teach an older mother or father how to use a computer. And yet simple stuff like "click the mouse here" is like trying to teach rocket surgery. I'm sure that when the first TVs or some other "new when they were young" piece of tech came out, they used to be pretty good at just learning how to use it. They learned how the 8 tracks in their cars worked. Why is learning a DVD player or how to print something now impossible? Someone who knows about brain chemistry or physiology; is there a medical reason for this kind of thing?

I think it's one of two things:

1) You start stupid, and stay stupid. There are young people who just can't do certain things and refuse to learn or try to do it.....it's just a complete block people have on learning things. They say things like "I don't read".

2) A lot of people believe that you get infirm as you age, and talk themselves into it. My mother works at a retirement home, and says she sees it all the time - people who are perfectly healthy, and relatively young, who are just crippled because they think they are. There are examples of people who live perfectly normal, active lives until they die. My great grandfather used to climb up on his roof and do home repairs because the grandkids were, quote, "pussies".

Someone at a PA Costco saved my grandmother from doing this for my "cousin". The guy at the desk basically insisted that she try to call my cousin before allowing her to file the paperwork. When he answered and was like WTFRUTalkinabout she was greatly relieved.

The brazen asshole called her back asking where the money was an hour after she talked to my real cousin and she said, but we just spoke not an hour ago and you said you were fine.

So thanks random employee. My granny doesn't have much money to spare.

A few years back some woman claiming to be an old friend of my Aunt stole several hundred dollars in cash from my grandparents while she was "going to the bathroom" after being invited into my grandparents house.

Last year we did the same thing at my store. Older guy comes in and says he has to buy these green dot cards and send them to Jamaica because he has won the lottery and needs to buy them to pay the taxes. We didn't know thats what he was doing until he was up to nearly $2000 in cards. When we asked him if he thought it sounded a little strange, he yelled at us for "keeping an old man from his money." Surprise, it was a scam. And he was pissed. That these people had promised photographers to come take his picture and no-one ever showed up. Not the lose of money, that the farking camera crew never showed up.

ModernLuddite:taurusowner: I'm legitimately curious, does something happen in the human brain around a certain age that makes old people this way? I would imagine that this woman in question had a functioning brain when she was in her 30s for instance. I doubt she would have just given thousands of dollars to a stranger when she was young. What made her unable to rationally evaluate reality now? Similarly, why is it so much harder for older people to learn new skills? I'm not even talking about people in their 70s and 80s. Even adults in their later 40s and 50s seem to lose the ability to do new things. I'm sure I'm not the first person to try to teach an older mother or father how to use a computer. And yet simple stuff like "click the mouse here" is like trying to teach rocket surgery. I'm sure that when the first TVs or some other "new when they were young" piece of tech came out, they used to be pretty good at just learning how to use it. They learned how the 8 tracks in their cars worked. Why is learning a DVD player or how to print something now impossible? Someone who knows about brain chemistry or physiology; is there a medical reason for this kind of thing?

I think it's one of two things:

1) You start stupid, and stay stupid. There are young people who just can't do certain things and refuse to learn or try to do it.....it's just a complete block people have on learning things. They say things like "I don't read".

2) A lot of people believe that you get infirm as you age, and talk themselves into it. My mother works at a retirement home, and says she sees it all the time - people who are perfectly healthy, and relatively young, who are just crippled because they think they are. There are examples of people who live perfectly normal, active lives until they die. My great grandfather used to climb up on his roof and do home repairs because the grandkids were, quote, "pussies".

It could also be that as they get old and lose contact with others, they hang onto the few people they have left. It's something that phone scammers know very well. They rarely scam oldsters who have lots of friends and close family members--they get most of their money from people who live alone and are estranged from the few relatives they have left. So the scammer is the only person who calls regularly and the old person will do anything to keep that person calling back. Or in this case, it could be the old lady doesn't have many grandchildren, and panicked when she thought her only grandson was in trouble thousands of miles away.

People like my aged grandmother, who is very close to my mom and calls her all the time, don't fall victim to these scams as much. My grandmother got a call from one of these freaks, telling her she'd won a huge amount of money and needed to send them X dollars for a "processing fee" and the first thing she did was call my mom to find out who she needed to report them to.

Britney Spear's Speculum:My parents/aunts/uncles have told my grandparents to never believe anything like this unless they are told by them.

A older volunteer at my office fell for that - her "grandson" said he was in jail in Canada and his Dad would throw him out of the house if he found out. That was very plausible so she wired it...

She did manage to get the local paper to write about it bc even though she felt incredibly f--king stupid she wanted others to know.

IIRC they had enough details to make it sound crazy plausible so they thought it had to be someone who knew him... but small town = easy to find details on a Facebook page and the same last name in town (white pages online adding age) probably is grandparents ...

I know a lady who fell for this scam. This is the same 86 year old lady who got taken by the "phone call from Microsoft" scam. She is a very intelligent and well-educated person, too, not senile as far as I can tell. I don't know why she falls for these things.

taurusowner:I'm legitimately curious, does something happen in the human brain around a certain age that makes old people this way? I would imagine that this woman in question had a functioning brain when she was in her 30s for instance. I doubt she would have just given thousands of dollars to a stranger when she was young. What made her unable to rationally evaluate reality now? Similarly, why is it so much harder for older people to learn new skills? I'm not even talking about people in their 70s and 80s. Even adults in their later 40s and 50s seem to lose the ability to do new things. I'm sure I'm not the first person to try to teach an older mother or father how to use a computer. And yet simple stuff like "click the mouse here" is like trying to teach rocket surgery. I'm sure that when the first TVs or some other "new when they were young" piece of tech came out, they used to be pretty good at just learning how to use it. They learned how the 8 tracks in their cars worked. Why is learning a DVD player or how to print something now impossible? Someone who knows about brain chemistry or physiology; is there a medical reason for this kind of thing?

Yes, it is called getting old. I'm a specialist in senior insurance products, and one of the things that we (should) do is look out for cases of elder abuse, especially financial. Somewhere north of 70, the mind just stops thinking so critically. It's not a case where you can say that "This person is 85 and so is incompetent" (my father's aunt is in her '90s and lives independently, just got her first ever phone a few years ago) but you can say that in most people, for whatever reason, they just become easy to swindle. Many seniors just want to avoid conflict, they appreciate people who pay attention to them, and they know the world has changed a lot since when they were younger.

It's very disheartening how many houses get new roofs or driveways every year. It's even worse how many children and grandchildren actively steal from their elders.

I reported several cases to the local prosecutor's office last year, they have a special prosecutor specifically to take on senior abuse cases. But even those guys can be clueless about the financial risks involved with being a senior. You know how we are told to keep our Social Security numbers guarded, leave them at home, don't carry them with your drivers license, etc? Well, when you go on Medicare, your Medicare number is usually your Social Security number with a suffix. Every senior is advised to carry this card with them at all times. This special prosecutor had no idea this was the case. He spent a whole hour giving a presentation on safeguarding SS numbers to a group of seniors, and every one of them dipped into their wallets and brought out their cards, with their SS numbers clearly printed on them.

Because abusers can be family as well as strangers, it's real hard to figure out a good way to combat this other than increasing awareness. One of my clients was recieving a dozen copies each of ten magazines a month. The same "nice young lady" had kept coming back and she was so nice. No, I don't know why I'm getting these magazines. No, I don't know how much I'm paying for them. No, I don't read any of them. But she was such a nice young lady, you don't get polite kids like that anymore. No, I didn't know I was being charged for them, they just offered to send them to me. No, my children don't know about them.

And yet this same older woman is sharp enough to be very on guard about discussing her finances with the insurance agent she asked into her home to discuss those things. She was far more wary of me than of a random stranger knocking on her door.

And I would talk with probably a dozen seniors a year like this. Some were being ripped off for tens of thousands a year. All of them were over age 70.

Guy I used to work with fell for the Russian Girlfriend scam - wired her a bunch of money for a plane ticket and such, then headed to the airport with a little sign to wait at the terminal for her. Even after multiple people at work told him it was a scam.

liltingbanshee:I know a lady who fell for this scam. This is the same 86 year old lady who got taken by the "phone call from Microsoft" scam. She is a very intelligent and well-educated person, too, not senile as far as I can tell. I don't know why she falls for these things.

My mom got one of those "Microsoft" phone calls. She's in her 60s but she's not computer un-savvy at all so she realized the scam right away. Still, every time I've heard about someone getting that call in the area it's always someone 50+. It's simultaneously eerie and sad.

Gyrfalcon:ModernLuddite: taurusowner: I'm legitimately curious, does something happen in the human brain around a certain age that makes old people this way? I would imagine that this woman in question had a functioning brain when she was in her 30s for instance. I doubt she would have just given thousands of dollars to a stranger when she was young. What made her unable to rationally evaluate reality now? Similarly, why is it so much harder for older people to learn new skills? I'm not even talking about people in their 70s and 80s. Even adults in their later 40s and 50s seem to lose the ability to do new things. I'm sure I'm not the first person to try to teach an older mother or father how to use a computer. And yet simple stuff like "click the mouse here" is like trying to teach rocket surgery. I'm sure that when the first TVs or some other "new when they were young" piece of tech came out, they used to be pretty good at just learning how to use it. They learned how the 8 tracks in their cars worked. Why is learning a DVD player or how to print something now impossible? Someone who knows about brain chemistry or physiology; is there a medical reason for this kind of thing?

I think it's one of two things:

1) You start stupid, and stay stupid. There are young people who just can't do certain things and refuse to learn or try to do it.....it's just a complete block people have on learning things. They say things like "I don't read".

2) A lot of people believe that you get infirm as you age, and talk themselves into it. My mother works at a retirement home, and says she sees it all the time - people who are perfectly healthy, and relatively young, who are just crippled because they think they are. There are examples of people who live perfectly normal, active lives until they die. My great grandfather used to climb up on his roof and do home repairs because the grandkids were, quote, "pussies".

It could also be that as they get old and lose contact with others, they hang onto the few people they have left. It's something that phone scammers know very well. They rarely scam oldsters who have lots of friends and close family members--they get most of their money from people who live alone and are estranged from the few relatives they have left. So the scammer is the only person who calls regularly and the old person will do anything to keep that person calling back. Or in this case, it could be the old lady doesn't have many grandchildren, and panicked when she thought her only grandson was in trouble thousands of miles away.

People like my aged grandmother, who is very close to my mom and calls her all the time, don't fall victim to these scams as much. My grandmother got a call from one of these freaks, telling her she'd won a huge amount of money and needed to send them X dollars for a "processing fee" and the first thing she did was call my mom to find out who she needed to report them to.

Yeah... it's sad.

I've done non profit fundraising where older gentlemen - the 3 off the top of my head had just lost their long term spouse - would try to give me money - to keep - just because I spent time to talk to them. If there were kids they were states away... I always refused and said it had to go to the non-profit and then lied and said we couldn't take donations over X amount.

Sigh.

/no grandparents left myself//but we saw my grandmoms at least once a week or more///f--king broke my heart when one guy who tried to give me $50 within 5 minutes of meeting me said the waitress at a diner watched out for him but his in town daughter hadn't visited in a year